Part of my problem with this book, is simply that I finished it with an intense dislike for Lewis. I'm not certain that these were her exact words, but she announced huffily that she couldn't be convinced that [...] - no lady, I don't imagine that anyone could convince you of anything, and that isn't a compliment. At one point, to prove her thesis that violence is always the result of childhood trauma, she gathers together a murderer and his three brothers. She is thoroughly contemptuous of the youngest who arrive in a suit and looks like - gasp! - a Preppie! He doesn't remember being abused, due to his age and his brothers' attempts to shield him, and maybe some suppression of memories. Another brother is a reformed alcoholic. By the time Lewis is through with them, she is able to announce triumphantly that the two brothers have both becomes alcoholic. What's ruining people's lives compared to Lewis finding more evidence for her thesis?

Lewis also unpleasantly reminds me of a former friend who had ideas similar to Lewis' - she felt that obviously criminals had been failed by society, and therefore were morally innocent and shouldn't be punished. To her sorrow, I replied that, be that as it may, they still can't be allowed to kill people. The other little nugget that horrified me was that everyone deserves another chance - no matter what they've done - no matter how many times they've done it - no matter how many chances they've already had. If they continue to kill, that's just the price we pay. NB: if the victim is a member of her ethnic group, she's much less sympathetic.

The other thing that I found weird avout the above logic is that if Society is responsible for all bad behavior, and we are guilty as members of Society - we are also products of Society, which logically means that we are responsible for the behavior of everybody except ourselves.

Lewis in mentioned is John Douglas's Mindhunter He would agree that most serial killers were usually abused as children, but he would like to know what we are to do with them now. I share his doubts that they can be cured and safely released. He is also a touch skeptical of some of their claims. Oddly enough, he considers them capable of embroidering their stories if they think it will get them a light punishment. I would also recommend reading The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent : The Criminal Mind on Trial by forensic psychologist Barbara R. Kirwin

The chief issue that divides these books is the issue of the nature of insanity. Douglas says that it has no real definition of it. If being mentally ill is insanity, than I am insane, but I will still claim the ability to make decisions for which I am responsible. Douglas is working with the definition of legal insanity, that is, that the person either does not understand that their acts are wrong, or is unable to control their behavior. I don't remember if Lewis ever touched on the question of how many abused children grow up to be murderous, which is important in determining if violent behavior is compelled. There are those who claim that abused children grow up to abuse their own offspring, and other that claim that in most cases, that isn't true. I suspect that it may have to do with the availability in their life of mentors and alternate role models.

There are a lot of social improvements we need to make, better schools, better medical care, prison reform. But stopping childhood abuse is tricky. There are horror stories of children who were not rescued from their parents, and horror stories of those who were and ended up in foster homes that were worse. Some of the abuse that the four brothers mentioned above suffered was in a foster home were they were supposed to be safe from their parents. ( )

Wow. This was a really honest and disturbing book. Are "evil" murderers more Gomer Pyle than Hannibal Lector? Why do some murderers end up on death row and other actually get the chair? What kind of people volunteer and look forward to become the executioner?

Now, it's been a couple weeks since I actually finished the book. I happened to be traveling outside the country and it really made me wonder why the USA is the only major global player who has a death penalty? Have all the other nations civilized or softened?

It made me really think about patterns and how we so often re-enact our childhoods when we become the parents. Or in other words, we do become our parents.



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She works with defense attorneys to study convicted killers in hopes of saving them from execution. Not surprisingly, most have backgrounds of abuse and many have had injuries or medical conditions that predispose them to violence.

It's rather slow moving, with a lot of information about how she got into this kind of work and started working with another psychiatrist, and doesn't cover many cases, so it wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. She talks about the difficulties of working in prison settings and getting cooperation from lackadaisical public defenders, as well as other roadblocks she encounters, which was insightful.

evamat72 here on LibraryThing linked to this fascinating New Yorker article about how this book was plagiarized as part of a Broadway play, "Frozen". https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/11/22/something-borrowed ( )

Most readers of non fiction experience a frisson when reading about the lives of sociopathic serial killers. Could we be thinking, “There but for the grace of God go I” either in the role of victim or murderer? Dr. Lewis has interviewed in prisons many of these psychotic, aggressive men, who should have been institutionalized at some point in their young lives but instead, due to a sea change in government attitudes, now wander our streets, live in homeless shelters, or occupy our prisons. Their crimes are horrendous oceans of blood but should they held responsible for their uncontrollable urges to commit mayhem or should they be found guilty due to diminished capacity, prescribed medication, and released to live out their lives in society? All the killers interviewed by Dr. Lewis were psychologically and physically abused during and after birth and led desperate lives. Society imposes the licensing of many articles except for the most precious one, our children. Perhaps that is the solution for stopping the plague of serial killers our society faces. ( )

Wow. Even weirder and more interesting than the facts in this book: it is the basis of a Broadway play! I shit you not, dear review reader. Malcom Gladwell wrote about this, and other instances of "sampling" in this article for the New Yorker: http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_11_25_a_borrowed.html ( )